Models are Not Real...LOL!

I have to jump away from my timeline on here for a minute because I just cannot get over the amount of modeling "reality" shows and competitions on TV nowadays! When I was traveling, I don't think there was a single one of these on...and thank God for that.

Had any of this crap (which, I have to admit, I am sadly addicted to) been on then, I may have ended up being scared to death every time I made good use of my Direct TV hook-up and turned on the tube. I may have decided that after watching one too many, vapid, spoiled, insipid, underaged brat whining about getting a haircut or trying to sabotage another model that this was not what I wanted to do with my life. Luckily, I was untainted by modeling "reality" and had the adventure of a lifetime with some of the coolest people ever. Sure, I ran into handfuls of models that would make perfect TV fodder for these shows, but I never had to be friends with them..and like I've already described in the annals of this blog, I did have some CRAZY roommates...but it wasn't like I had to live with TWELVE of them in one apartment. Just one crazy at a time.

So now, when I turn on my LocalTV-Satellite to fulfill my guilty pleasure of watching ANTM or She's Got the Look...oh God, and let's not forget Make Me a Supermodel...I laugh inside thinking about what a terrible view of models TV viewers are getting. Those models are NOT real! LOL! They are little walking parodies strutting their "fierce" wanna-be stuff by way of your localtv-satellite.com. Out of every ten models I met, I can honestly say only two would fit that profile....and more likely then not, those were the girls (and boys) not every really working in the first place! ;)

Tram, Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I know somewhere that I have a collection of pictures that will need to be posted at soime point in time of several of us fab young things taking trams around Milan, cabs in Taipei, planes to the Bahamas....sometimes the random automobile would be thrown in the the mix, but rarely.

Packing cars sardine style was really more of a college thing. Since most cities that I traveled too for work had excellent public transportation, I left the car worries to the locals and made sure to always carry some form of train pass, etc to get me from here to everywhere. Los Angeles, of course, was the one exception to that rule, which I think I mentioned before....but even working in other California cities I had the pleasure of being able to use great mass transit....like in San Francisco.

The handful of times I was up there I found myself either being picked up and driven from the airport to my booking or I'd be privy to the joys of BART as opposed to worrying about my Honda Accord and where I was going to park it in that labyrinth of a city, or if my timing belt was going to go out as I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. Knowing the number of my booker's cell phone and where the client's location was going to be was about all I wanted to have to worry about, some San Francisco auto repair company was definitely not something I wanted to care about.

Now that I live in the burbs and have to drive to get to anything, and I mean anything except for the Krispie Kreme down the street, I really miss those awesome public transportation days....oh yeah, and those plane rides to the Bahamas....good God I had it good....sigh....

Chronology is a Bitch.

So after that wild night that truly signaled the start to a new season in Milan, I can't quite accurately tell you what exactly ensued. Maybe I just don't want to realize that, (GASP), all of this took place almost a decade ago...while I really want to believe that it was all just yesterday. I cannot possibly admit that I am that much closer to Depends and Dentucreme now then I was then....sigh....oh the anguish of it all! ;)

I do know that we maintained our busy casting schedule. Sat in cattle calls for hours, tried our best to decipher what the clients were thinking or saying while looking at our books. We convened at Parco Sempione in the warm afternoons of Italian spring and summer....drank wine, smoked cigs (but only to keep the sadistic mosquitos away, right?) and talked for hours on end about everything and nothing at all....We partied at night like the insouciant youth that we were....leaving clubs as the sun was making its way back out to greet the world. We ran around on blackened feet to castings, ever trying to fold and refold those tarpaulin sized maps of La Citta de Milano....we stopped to eat gelato, panini, antipasti, drink caffe lattes and cappuccinos and espremutas di arancia. We stopped to smell the roses back then too.

I look back on those days with the utmost joy, fondness and melancholy. Those truly were the best days of my life. I traveled and got paid to do so...and most importantly....I had the BEST friends on earth to do it with. We were actually there for each other...not in a Facebook kind of way...but in an actual IN YOUR FACE kind of way. Nothing compares to that now...never will.

I didn't end up working as much as I had wanted to this particular season in Milan...but that didn't matter. I booked a few catalogs, a small editorial, a couple of hair advertisements, and worked showroom for Byblos. It was enough to keep my account clear at the agency. I knew Asia was around the corner for me again where I could repad the old checking account. What mattered was that deep down inside of me I knew that this season in Milan was going to be one of the last seasons that all of us...the C-9 Killahs and the Dolce Crew....would be together. My best bud, my little brother love, Ned, even came out from Paris to spend a few weeks with the old crew in our madness and moments of joyful indiscretion. For just a moment we are all back together and it felt like something that good could never end. But, alas, all good things do come to and end.

A few new good compadres were even added to the mix...as if a group that great could get any better...it did. Ryan, Josh, Daryl, Daniel, Casey....all of us total addicts to the gods of gelati. God, I miss all of those cats. Badly.

And now we are all grown up and off and around the world....some married with kids. Some newlyweds (CONGRATS MIKEY!!), some heading corporations, some still living the dream, some have just fallen off the map.....but never forgotten. ;)

This post just got WAY more emotional then I intended it to....lol! I just truly miss those moments in a lifetime that seems completely like fiction to me now. I miss knowing that in a month or two I would be back on a plane, my life in a midsized black suitcase, and off to see my friends again in some distant land.....too good to be true? It wasn't then....just is now.

And with that I'll sign off. No point in weeping into my laptop. ;) I'll be back again shortly with some proper anecdotes and pictorials. After all, I did make it back to Venice with some of the newer members of my crew...only this time no one ended up getting arrested.

xoxo

As Promised...A Collage of our Moments of Greatness

Well...just of the night I just blogged about! ;) There are more photographic gems of this night, I just need to find them....this last move has left me in a quandry as to where most of my stuff is!




Tomorrow I dedicate myself to finding all lost records of that night and the others that followed. ;)

Texting and Transpo

I'm in the middle of a big house move, so my promised pics of the infamous Night of Wine in the Bushes will have to wait another week or two....but in the meantime, let me entertain you with some stories of texting and transportation in Milan.

Like I've said before, in most markets outside of Asia and Los Angeles, models find themselves walking out of their agencies on their first day there with a map the size of a tarpaulin and a list of go-sees. This is survival of the fittest. There is no big black Escalade on twenty-two's waiting to take you anywhere....not even a tore-up Toyota Corolla with your name on it. You get to Milan, Paris, London, Hamburg, Barcelona, Miami or wherever else you may land and it is up to you and only you to get your pretty little model arse to where you are supposed to be. None of this America's Next Top Model girls-getting-driven-around shite. Nope.

Yet, somehow, we all seem to hit the ground running just fine. So fine, that our little network of friends was in contact with each other on the trams, subways, and busses of Milan at all times via our Omnitel Savvy cell phones. We'd be sending each other texts about who was hot and who had a crush on who. We'd message each other random song lyrics with words substituted in that only we would find funny...so I won't bother boring or twisting your minds with that....;) If a casting was too full or just sucked in general, there we were warning our buddies about it. When we were hankering for gelato or happy hour the texts would get sent out and within an hour we'd all be practicing mad gluttony together. It was great.

Had we been driving our own cars, this would've never been possible. We'd have been too busy worrying about traffic and if the car's water pump needed to be replaced. Texting on public transpo was AWESOME......and that was back then....on our archaic little plastic phones. I can't even imagine how great it would be with all the gadgetry the baby models have now!

Our cellys were used for nothing more than pleasure. It was all about the gossip and plannification of great times together. We didn't need our phones to figure out the weather forecast for the next millenia or whether we could find reliable Chicago auto repair or check our Facebook pages. Facebook? Love it now, but back then...did it even exist? We were actually all together...just a text message away...no need for the social networking...we were living it.

Oh yeah...the good old days of public transpo in Milan. Good times. No worries about anything....oh man, take me back to that, even just for a minute!

Back on Course In Milan....(Wine in Bushes and Other Moments of Greatness)

Ok, so let me get back on course with the happenings....last thing I wrote about my last season in Milan was that I had issues with my crazy agency owner and that I had moved on to Names and into a great new apartment. In the interim, when I was staying for a few days at the hotel that my friend, Marcus, had so generously paid for is when I first was reunited with members of my old posse.

Kari had flown into town and moved in with Derek (who by the way is now a regular on the new season of the Real Housewives of New York City!!!! He's as fab as ever and I am so proud of him!!) but was spending some nights with me at the Hotel Serena where we would stay up into the wee hours catching up on life, drinking wine and just being happy. A few days into Kari being in Milan, Jeremy (remember my Canadians?) arrived. We met up for a little prefunk in my hotel room his first night back which we prepped for by going to the local supermarket and buying ludicrous amounts of cheap vino and lugging it all back to my room.

At some point in the night we decided that we would WALK to Gasoline to see if any of our other friends were in town yet. Keep in mind, that we all had cells and texting was a new thing for us....so we really were all playing it by ear as to when we would run into the rest of our crew. The walk from Hotel Serena to Gasoline must've been something like 30 minutes long...we're talking opposite ends of Milan....but we had bottles of wine in hand and my trusty camera to keep us company. God, the pictures from that night...THE PICTURES! I'll be scanning those in this week and posting them. They are BEAUTIES.

Once we got to Gasoline we figured it would be an amazing idea to hide our wine bottles in the bushes outside of the club. Since we were there early on in the season we weren't sure that there would be table service provided for us and we had to make very sure that our sweet buzz would continue unaltered throughout the night. After stashing our bottles, we got in line, were escorted to the front (love being a model...heh heh) and into the VIP section at the back of the club. I was drunkish at the time but remember clear as day getting pinched by random hands almost the entire walk to the back. Not cute.

Once there we met up with Derek who was also in the throes of Bacchus and somehow ended up on the floor in the VIP with all of us laying there with him. Lovefest, what can I say? LOL! A little after that I looked up to see Jason, one of my other Canadians standing with another boy model and his de rigeur Jack & Coke in hand. I called out his name and when he looked over (and this is one my best friend/reuniting moments ever) he stared with this look of joy on his face over at us and literally dropped his glass out of surprise. It was beautiful. He ran over to us and there were hugs and kisses all around. Seriously the best thing ever. Imagine being in a foreign country for just a few days and all of a sudden seeing a close friend out of the blue. Like that...so good.

We all drank and danced and loved each other (and not in any way durrty...so please....minds out of gutters, stat.) and took breaks to run out to the bushes to gulp down more wine (even though Derek made sure that we had endless champagne...) but we were kids and high on life and so, why not drink that wine in the foliage? We also made damned sure to do pole dances od the random metal tube stuck in a block of cement that was outside of the club too....again, why the hell wouldn't we?

Milan, Milan, Milan....Kari, Jeremy, Jason and Derek......I miss the hell out of you.

Left Off....

Ha! Wow....I just realized that I need to pick back up from my last season in Milan. Life always seems to get in the way...bad blogger excuse, but so be it. I now have written down in my planner on what days I need to update and scan in ancient photographs....so don't give up hope on me yet. ;)

Back SOON! =)

Of Cars and Feet

I have really small feet for a model....so small that clients have joked with me about how I can possibly stand up without tipping over because my feet are so miniscule for a girl my height. It's genetic..what can I say? All the women in my family have feet small enough to make a Geisha cry with envy. At 5'8" I wear a size 6 shoe. Yep 6. So while clients would think that was funny or cute, I always got to work on shoe catalogs the world over because my hoofs were just right for sample sizes. No complaints here!

The only market I ever had trouble booking foot jobs (wow that sounds slightly naughty) was Miami. In Europe and Asia I had public transportation to take, and In Los Angeles I always drove my car. However, in Miami models walk to all of the castings and since it's hot we'd all wear flip-flops. This is great until you get to a casting, without having been told it was specifically for a shoe catalog, and you realize that your feet are black from street grime that somehow manages to creep over the soles of your sandals and right onto your toes. Sexy. Castings like those would find me wishing I had arrived in the comfort of a Ford Explorer or at least a scooter.

During one particular casting, I found out that the client was asking the models to remove their shoes in order to look at our feet from every angle and 9 out of 10 girls were walking out of the casting room with red faces....I started sweating bullets wondering if I should skip the casting and make my bookers blow a head gasket or have the clients see my tan and black feet and utter some words of disgust in French, Italian or German....I saw the little fountain in front of the hotel the casting was being held in and wanted so badly to dip my feet in it...but the concierge was hovering. Ugh. I went in and apologized, handed them my card and made a quick retreat...without any shoe removal. Shoe casting FAIL!

I loved being able to drive my own car to castings in LA. I had my trusty Honday Civic, a Triple A card and knew where I needed to go for some good ol' Los Angeles auto repair should I have needed it. Traffic and parking aside, there was something so nice about the freedom of having your own set of wheels...listening to music to amp me for whatever casting I was having, the ability to have some personal time and space...it was golden. Needless to say, in Los Angeles, my feet were ALWAYS camera ready!

My Crazy Model TV Addiction

I just have to cut in here and talk a little about what it was like for me the first few hours I would move into any models' apartment in any part of the globe. For some reason, I would more often than not, move in and have the entire place be empty. Not empty as in I got the apartment to myself for the entire season...more like, empty because everyone was working or on castings. So, what does a girl do in a foreign country, in a new apartment, and all on her lonesome? TURN ON THE TV.

It didn't matter if I was in Italy, Japan or Taiwan...the first thing I would do upon entering a new home and setting my luggage down, was to turn on the television. It's not like I expected the experience to be anything like turning on my TV at home and having my shows pop up as if my cable services had magically followed me abroad.....but I did want to hear and see something.

That eerie quiet that comes from being alone in a strange new hovel was always disheartening to me. Despite my travel addiction, for those first few seconds in a new and empty place, I would have a flash of homesickness...I would want to grab the phone and pay unreal sums of money just to "connect" with someone. So, instead of a phone call, I would turn on the tube and watch really loud and bright Japanese game shows, or Italian music videos which were often (as in the case of Piero Pelu) too unbelievably bad to look away from....or the VTV music videos in Taipei that played anything from Brittney Spears terribleness to some really cool Korean hip hop. Once in a while, I scored and would find a show in English...some ancient Fresh Prince or Little House on the Prairie episode that was somehow bouncing through space off of a satellite....and that was good. Real good. And then there were the apartments were the TV's sat there covered in dust...like a relic from the Eastern Bloc...some random looking contraption that would not work no matter how much I cursed at it and tried every knob (mind you most never had a remote)...and those were always the creepiest nights. Sitting there in silence until a roomate would finally appear and save me from the quiet.....

This model TV addiction never lasted long. Once in and integrated into my new life and home I barely had time to sit and watch anything on TV. And when I did it was to watch DVD's with friends....When I would return home to the States though I would always make sure that my cable would always be set up and working.....and it always was to my great relief....because after being gone for 3-6 months at a time, coming home to the States and my apartments there was always strange and oddly disheartening as well. I would want to have the company of whatever news anchor or sitcom actor was on at the moment I would walk in the door....

And it's funny for me to even think about all of this now....since at this point in my life I crave nothing more than silence and solitude...and a large chunk of chocolate....but back then, the silence of an empty apartment after being on planes full of people, photoshoots surrounded by crew, and parties embraced by friends...was just not comfortable.....So, yes....I guess in that way I was a typical American, needing my TV and finding it a source of comfort. No wonder some of my Eastern Euro and Brazilian roomies would roll their eyes at me when they first met me...."aha! look at the American! always with the TV on even if she isn't watching it!".

Best Models Apartment EVER!!

I have waxed and wanted poetic in the past about how bad the conditions of models' apartments usually are....but once in a while you hit the jackpot and Names in Milan gave me my pot of gold. Names had several apartment suites reserved in pensiones around Milan. Mine happened to be in the Pension Garden.

Whereas most models' apartments lacked in square footage and furnishings, this one had a really nice lounge area, that led to the bathroom (with a proper shower!!) and then the bedroom. The kitchen was in what I assumed was a closet in the living room, but it proved to be adequate enough for the two of us. After all, in Milan the food is aplenty and a trip across the street to the Bar Cafe was always perfect to satiate our hunger. We also were privy to free lunches at different spots around town...a model perk in Milan. :) The apartment also had large windows that sung open over a pleasant courtyard and the building had a concierge and secured entry. I was in model heaven.

Being that this was an apartment-suite we also had all of the amenities that we could want...a washer and DRYER....and the dryer part is exciting because those are not de rigeur in Europe or Asia. We had a great assortment of pots, pans, plates, and matching silverware! It may not have been sterling silver flatware and the plates were plastic rather than Pfaltzgraff dinner sets but they matched, were unbroken and abundant. Up until that point I was used to using chipped bowls for every meal and plastic utensils...or rusted and bent ones. I guess the agencies assumed that models wouldn't be eating anyways! lol!

The few times we stayed home and cooked with our actual pans and tableware...(my favorite was pasta with sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and zucchini topped with fresh buffalo mozzarella)...our meals looked like something worthy of a Food Television close-up. Life was good....and this would be just the start of an amazing, amazing, amazing season in Milan.

Zit Explosions

I have to make a slight detour and talk a little about models and their complexions while traveling. There are a select few who suffer from nothing more than a slight case of chapped lips or an oily forehead...but the rest of us do go through some skin trauma every time we travel.

Due to pollution, water conditions, changes in diet, lack of sleep, dehydration from long plane trips, most models will end up with a random explosion of zits during the first few weeks in a new city with nary an English speaking Dermatologist to be found. This, of course, is horrible because you want to make a great first impression on your agents and the new clients and photographers you'll be meeting. Walking around with a few prime goiters on your face is not exactly worthy of great self-esteemage.

I was mostly lucky in that I would get some minor break-outs that I could cover with some concealer and that would clear up in a day or two, but once in a while I would develop a nice crop of cystic acne somewhere painfully obvious like my chin that would make me cringe at the thought of leaving my apartment to face the hypercritical world I worked in. Hell, I probably would've cringed to go work at a burger joint when my breakouts were that bad. Luckily, the more I traveled and worked, the more I found out that models having skin issues while traveling was as common as finding out that people get boob jobs and laser hair removal in Los Angeles. Also, the more I traveled, the less my skin would react....it was starting to get used to the "abuse". ;)

I had make-up artists sympathize and tell me that they are always working with girls who get bad skin...especially in the bigger, dirtier cities like Milan, Athens, Paris and Taipei. They would suggest washing my face with bottled water, but the cost and pain in the assness of doing that was always daunting and eventually my zits would leave of their own accord and not return so it was all good. I also finally discovered tea tree oil soaps and astringents and that, to this day, has kept my pores clear.

Having had a Smartphone or real internet access during those times of skin crisis would've been nice. When I was traveling for work we all still pretty much depended on obscure internet cafes that charged up the wazoo for an hour of slooooow internet connections. I know that being able to hit up a site like Celibre or even WebMd would have helped me figure out how to prevent skin scares in the first place.

I remember out of sheer desperation, I ended up burning a little patch on my left cheek. Not burning as in "with fire", but a week before I was to be in Asia for a contract, I developed a stress zit smack dab on the middle of my cheek that had its own heartbeat and looked like Vesuvius. Painful and I knew I couldn't hide that thing. So I kept dabbing it day and night with Benzoyl Peroxide and rubbing alchohol and lo and behold a few days later the bump was gone but my skin was black in that spot. BLACK AND CRISPY. The burnt skin finally peeled off the day I was supposed to fly out, thank God. But still...gross.

More Crazy in Milan

Ok, where was I...this Swine Flu fried my brain.....ah yes....Milan.

So, there I was living in an overloaded models apartment, not being able to shower or sleep or keep food in the kitchen. I had made my agency a lot of money the season before and felt that I deserved better living conditions. Why not, right? I mean, I know that models apartments are pretty much crap no matter where you go, but this was ridiculous.

After a few days I decided to go in to talk to the owner of my agency about moving me to another apartment. I knew that there was room for one more girl at the apartment that I had lived in the season before and I wanted to move over there. The owner, Patti, freaked out on me and told me that I couldn't live at the apartment on Paolo Sarpi because I had let an Italian man move in there after I had left and gone back to the States. WTF?!?!?!?! She said that a month after I had left, the cleaning lady had walked into the apartment and there was a guy living there who threw the keys at her when confronted and told her that I had sublet the apartment to him. Ummmm...WHAT?

The thing is, when I left, there was a Swedish model moving in...she was in the apartment for a few days before my departure and during that time she had another female model move in as well who had been kicked out of her agency and was therefore pretty much homeless. The Swede was a BITCH. She was an older catalog model and patronized me to no end for the few days she was there. I hated her and I'm sure the energy was apparent. I'll always believe that she was the one who handed my apartment keys (which I had left on the coffee table and asked her to return to the agency...to which the bitchnazz agreed) to one of her Italian friends with an aside that it was me who gave him the keys should he get caught in there. Aaaah...just thinking about it makes me so mad still!!

So, there I am trying to relate the story to Patti about Swedish C**nt and her key trickery, but she would have none of it. I didn't even have any male Italian friends the entire time I was there.....we models hung out together and didn't have much to do with the locals. Just how it was. So, Patti insisted that I stay at the apartment I was in and that was that.

I decided to take things into my own hands....I moved out and in with my make-up artist friend, Derek, from Miami who was in Milan for the season. I stayed there for a few days, and then when my friend, Marcus, from Taipei found out that I had nowhere to stay he booked me a room in a nice hotel for a week so that I could get my bearings and figure out what I wanted to do. I've since lost touch with him, but that was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.....I'll never forget it.

After moving into the hotel, I found out that my booker from last season had moved on to Names Agency so I gave her a call and went in to meet with the bookers. Names signed me right away and found me a gorgeous...and I mean NICE apartment with a sweet Bolivian roommate....yes, just ONE roommate....to move into right away. They faxed Patti at Eye for I and told her I was moving on....Patti got mad...oops....but that was that.

Names ended up being an even more top notch agency and they really housed the models in the best apartments of any I've seen. You cannot imagine how happy I was! The caliber of my castings went up too and I was seeing Armani, Conde Nast, Byblos (for whom I booked showroom for a month), Diesel, RePlay and more....it was great. My roomie was amazing, we got to speak in Spanish all the time, and so my new season in Milan began.....

SWINED!

I got the Swine Flu. H1N1...whatever you want to call it. Let me get back to feeling human and less undead and I'll resume my posting.

Thanks and stay healthy!!!

I Need My Fashion TV!!!

And now I have to rant a little...random...and I promise to get back to my adventures in Milan...but...

I had a friend on Facebook post that he wondered why Fashion TV is not readily available in the United States, yet you can watch it pretty much anywhere and everywhere else in the world. His post made realize that, not only was he right, but also that I too missed watching FTV. I wanted to make sure I hadn't just "missed" it on my TV listings and that my cable service was indeed pumping this goodness into my house...but nope. No Fashion TV channel to be seen...

If you haven't watched Fashion TV in the past, it is a channel dedicated to airing fashion shows from around the globe 24/7. With great music pumping, you are exposed to all of the hottest trends, models and designers...an education in fashion akin to sitting and reading a pile of Italian Vogues. For models, the channel is great as a tool for learning what walks are expected on the runway for the season. What can I say...I heart FTV. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm getting even more uber nostalgic about my traveling days than I normally am! Would my cable company know what I was talking about if I called and asked for my fashion show channel to be hooked up? And why, pray God, is this channel not offered as a normal part of any package? Fashion is good!! I want to watch runway shows, not porn or fishing. I get the fishing channel on my TV....but no fashion. Hmmm. This could be one reason why Europeans think we are so ass backwards when it comes to couture.

Or maybe it's just a coastal thing....I do remember that in Miami all of the condos I lived in had FTV....and NY too....Do we need to demand Comcast and TWC on the West Coast to give us runways, trance music, gorgeous people and f a s h i o n 24 hours a day?? I think yes. Give me that hedonistic pleasure, please. All the flannels and Birkenstocks around me are making me a sad girl.

Euros, Gold Coins and Scoliosis

I have to clarify....when I was working in Europe the Euro was still kind of trying to make its way into the banking system...so I would get paid in whatever the currency of the country I was in was at the time. And while traveling around for pleasure or direct bookings, I would have to change over my money at Forex stations. At the time, it was fine...I didn't know better, but I would have killed to have just used the Euro! One currency no matter where I went....talk about simplifying things. Also, I'm sure I would have had a happier bank account had I been paid in Euros as opposed to, say, lira. Euros would have been as welcome a form of payment to me as a nice pile of gold.

The economy was a bit better when I was traveling for work...not GREAT, but better....I still managed to make a nice living for taking pictures and wandering the earth. I didn't need to be paid my weight in gold coins (cue the model/waif jokes) to ensure that my bills at home were being paid as well as my stomach was being filled and I could shop if I so wanted...and yes of course, I wanted.

The thought of looking into alternate currency or investments never crossed my mind then, like they do now. I find myself listening to CNN's financial advisors and wondering if I need to convert all of my dollars into gold bullion or talk to my bookers in town about which client will be willing to pay me out in a big fat gold coin rather than the customary payroll check. It's crazy. I miss my carefree money days...even if I did have to carry a bag full of foreign coins heavy enough to give me the scoliosis I am pretty sure I have now.

And if you have no idea what all this talk of gold is about, there are plenty of websites that can inform you about what a great investment gold is. Sites like GoldCoinsAgain.com are great for keeping you updated on the value of gold, the trading trends, as well as can tell you what exactly bullion is....which is a good thing. You don't want to walk around telling people you are making an awesome crockpot creation using bullion.....yeah....

All this talk of gold coins, Euros and money in general is reminding me that I need to start getting all of my receipts and tax schtuff in order....almost that time of year. I am a Qualified Performing Artist after all! ;)

No, I Don't Get Free Clothes (aka I Heart Diesel)

The economy being what it is, I've decided to accept some offers to write about websites that I love on Peacocks. Mind you, I'm being very picky and only accepting clients that I already know, use and trust. I just wanted to give you all the heads up in case you find yourselves wondering how I went from whining about my craptastic models' apartment to couture underwear. To be honest, I love couture underwear and I do not love living like a sardine. I also love a little cash in hand...and who doesn't? ;) So...consider yourself warned and don't love me any less (or more, depending on who you are...).

As a model, people have asked me ad nauseum if I ever get free clothes, shoes, etc. from my shoots or fashion shows. The answer is a resounding "NO!". Actually, if I really think back....I got a free pair of socks from Adidas for a commercial I did for them once, and a track suit from a NIKE shoot...the art director was amazing. I have worked for trade and gotten sweet items from Portland designer, Sofada , but that's about it. So, like the rest of y'all, I have to SHOP for my duds.

One of my all time favorite websites for great deals on shoes and even greater customer service is Zappos. They not only carry insanely great, to the minute hot shoes, but also clothes and now...yes...even underwear. Diesel underwear. I heart Diesel underwear....to be honest, I heart anything by Diesel. I used to spend countless hours and dollars ahem...Lire) at the Diesel store at Piazza San Babila in Milan. Had I had a boyfriend at the time I would have had to insist he wear the Diesel boxers too....have mercy. Why didn't I get a pair for myself?? Anyways, back to what I was saying....you don't have to live in a cosmopolitan center of fashion to buy the latest from Diesel....Zappos.com has your Diesel wish list ready to mail out....and you know that Diesel underwear is on the top of that list. Admit it.

Moving My Model Self Back to Milan

After my last stint in Taipei I hightailed it back to Milan. All of my friends and roomies had left Taiwan so I was ready to head back to Europe and re-surround myself with my crew. Returning to Milan was nothing short of a homecoming. I was going to be represented by my old agency, they had bookings already lined up for me and one of my besties from Miami was going to be there for the first time, the bellisimma Marissa Juliette! This was bound to be an amazing trip!

The minute I got off of the plane, boarded the express to Cadorna and disembarked in the city center with all of my luggage I felt fit to burst with excitement and anticipation of another amazing season in one of my favorite cities. I got my cell phone charged (Omnitel baby!) and headed for the agency. Everything seemed the same once I walked in except for my favorite booker, Giorgia, was missing....and no one would say why. Then I was told that the apartments were all overbooked and that I would be living with 7 other girls and to please take a cab to the apartment right away to wash up and get ready for castings.

That was the first red flag...a taxi? My previous season I had been driven by the agency driver in the agency car (yes, emblazoned with Eye for I on the side) and graciously helped with my luggage up the three flights of marble stairs to my apartment. Hmmmm. The second red flag was that I would be living with 7 girls rather than the 1 or 2 from the season before. SEVEN girls in a tiny Milanese apartment.

Ok, I'm not a picky girl....I could handle it. I took the cab and got to the apartment. Once there, I Quasimodo'd my suitcases up the stairs (the lift was broken) and met my roomates. The first one I met was a drop dead gorgeous redhead named, Judith Bedard. We bonded as she was another half Cuban like me. I liked her right away, she had a no nonsense thing about her that was refreshing. She then showed me the only open bed in the place...it was a little bed in the living room of the apartment that had a sagging mattress because it was missing 4 slats right in the middle of the bed. Nice. Then I saw the kitchen, where every shelf and countertop was covered with food, and lastly the bathroom...the single bathroom for SEVEN models. SEVEN. And to make it all the better the shower only ran a piss warm, shoelace sized stream of water. Luxury.

After washing up and meeting a few photographers, I was dead tired. I grabbed a panino and a bottle of water from the paninoteca downstairs and made a beeline for my cot. It must have been around 9pm and after eating I was ready to pass out...jet lag from Asia to Europe is a bitch. But, since my bed was in the living room, the idea of privacy or getting any sleep at all was going to prove less realistic than a two headed unicorn showing up in the foyer. As I was getting comfortable in my saggy bed, a sweet little girl from Alabama came in with her Canadian boytoy and after two seconds of introductions, they started making out and then watched a movie on the TV. I started to feel a little homicidal at that point.


This was NOT starting off how I had imagined or expected it to.

Go to the START!!

LOL! For all of you new visitors....I just want to make sure you start this story from the top....

Just go into my archives and find my very first post and go from there...makes much more sense that way! :)

YES!

I found my journal and another box of modeling pictures. This week I'll be indulging you, ok, myself...with the rest of my adventures in modelhood.....

and on that note, I want to welcome my cousin, Christine Perez, to my world! She has been offered a contract by a top Miami agency. Her career is about to take off and you better believe I'll be living vicariously through her when she's on the road!!


Ciao tutti! Be back on Tuesday!!!

Back from the Dead

Good lord.....it's almost Halloween and I just realized that Peacocks on Leashes has been pretty much left to rot. In time for the ghoulish holiday, I am bringing this blog BACK TO LIFE. Muahahahahahaa!! It's been too long, and I still have stories to tell....I want to get all of my adventures onto this page and bring you all up to date on what my life has morphed into...still modeling, but somehow juggling two kids, a husband and the real world. See you SOON! :)